“Heading Out” recap (Ep. 3): L’amour et de l’insecurite

In Episode Trois of Heading Out, we really start to dig into Sara’s deep neuroses, to satisfying but often frustrating degrees. There’s also a lot of French going on, to satisfying but often frustrating degrees.

We begin in Sara’s living room, where Jamie’s reading a book and Justine’s watching a quiz show on the telly — she’s sold her own TV “to save for a new DVD player” — and guessing “Dick Francis” for every answer. She assures Sara that it’ll be the right answer someday; it’s just a matter of waiting. Justine is the best. Short aside: This reminds me of when I used to frequently play Cranium with some friends, like more than most normal people play Cranium, and every time we had to sculpt something out of that purple clay one of our friends would yell, “Clay!,” very seriously, and to this day, we still randomly shout, “One day it will be clay!” One day it will be Dick Francis! Never give up, Justine!

Justine also tells Sara that she missed a call from one of her ex-girlfriends earlier, but she can’t remember her name. Sara rattles off a number of ridiculous choices it could be until Justine mentions that she sounded French. “Oh no, that’s Sabine!” A second later, she’s pounding on the door.

Sabine is an archetype of a French crazy lady, and after tossing aside the pillow that Sara’s hiding under, she immediately begins to yell about Sara’s frigidity, her fear of intimacy. The shouts increase until the camera blends into a black and white, gauzy filter, while romantic, loopy accordion music plays in the background. We have faded into an all-French noir film a la the Sherlock sequence at the end of the last episode, which continue throughout the rest of the episode. I like these hokey devices, and hope they keep them up. Sabine bemoans the sexless English language; Sara admits she’s sort of afraid of clowns.

Justine breaks them out of the French repartee by announcing, in French, “OK, I have no idea what you’re saying.” A half a second later her face crumples and she cries, “But it’s just so beautiful!” Let’s be honest, at this point I’d be OK with an entire show just based around Justine.

Much to Sara’s consternation, Sabine weasels her way into staying at Sara’s house for a few days, as she needs a place to stay while she’s in town for a dear friend’s funeral.